Schools, shops and government offices were shut in some Indian states on Thursday as protesters blocked road and rail traffic as part of a one-day nationwide strike against sweeping economic reforms announced by the government last week.

Chronicle is the in the found-footage school - almost. It's less found-footage, and more that it incorporates the hand-held, point-of-view shots meant to replicate an amateur camera person, as the primary (possibly entire) mode of storytelling.

It took Japan more than 30 years of planning before the first Shinkansen 'bullet train' went into service in 1964. Its trains initially travelled at speeds of up to 210 km/h. It was only this year that speeds of 300 km/h became possible.

The mainland's railways have long been starved of investments, as the cold weather in the run-up to the Lunar New Year so harshly exposed. That is now changing, with Beijing increasing spending on the creaky system. Unfortunately, simply throwing more government money at the problem is unlikely to achieve the efficient modern network the country needs.

China's top leaders have urged rail authorities to redouble manpower and technical preparations ahead of next week's nationwide rail acceleration, which will see trains reaching speeds of up to 250km/h for the first time.

A: I've been working at the railways for 29 years. I first started repairing the tracks when I was 20 and did that for three years. Then I spent another three in the luggage room, several years collecting tickets, and finally came to work on the platform 10 years ago. I can't believe I'm retiring next year!